My Professional Development Plan

My Professional Development Plan
Tara Sloan
AED/201
May 19, 2013
Heather Coldani

My Professional Development Plan
I know that becoming a teacher can be hard at first, but if you set your mind to it and if becoming a teacher is what you really want to do with your life, then you should have no problem making it there. I always have dreamed of becoming a teacher. I remember when I was a child every day after school we would come home only to play school. We would make up lessons that went along with our homework, that way we could get our homework done, but in a fun way. I have set up goals to accomplish for the next 10 to 15 years. The goals I plan to accomplish in the next 5 years are, completing my associates degree in Elementary Education, then I want to become a teacher’s assistant, and while working as a teacher’s assistant I want to go back to school for my bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education. When I complete my degree in Early Childhood Education, I want to get my certification in teaching, and then I want to start looking into becoming a kindergarten teacher. Once I have discovered the options that I have and have looked at the different opportunities I have, I want to find a school, and finally have a classroom that I can call my own.
My first goal that I must complete is my Associate’s degree in Elementary Education. I am as of right now half way through my program, I have almost one year left until I graduate. I have been working very hard to keep my grades up by doing all my assignments, turning them in on time, and participating in our weekly discussions. At the beginning of each week I write my assignments down on a sticky note and stick it to my computer so that when I open my computer the first thing I see is my homework for the week. This has helped me so much, every time I open my computer I know that I have homework to do instead of surfing the web. It helps me stay on task better. I have had a few obstacles come my way while working on my degree, but I kept my mind focused on my dreams of becoming a teacher, and I overcame them. I plan on accomplishing this goal by receiving all the remaining credits needed for this degree. I plan to stay focused and to keep myself motivated throughout the rest of my program.
The second goal that I have set for myself is to become a teacher’s assistant once I have completed my associate’s degree. I will be able to work as a teacher’s assistant as I start on my bachelor’s degree. I will first have to go through an on-the-job training class before I could become a full time teacher’s assistant. Once I have passed the training, I will be able to become a teacher’s assistant. I want to become a teacher’s assistant so that I can get a feeling of the classroom setting and how teachers do it every day. I believe that I will be able to learn many important things from becoming a teacher’s assistant, and I will gain much needed experience that I will need when I do go for a job interview for a teaching position. To me, my second goal is very important, I will gain the experience that I need and will also learn the in and outs of a classroom.
As for my third goal, I want to start working on my Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. While I am working as a teacher’s assistant I also can continue school at the same time. I would have to register for school and sign up for classes. I would have to work very hard to get every credit that the program requires. I would have to be willing to put forth all my effort in working and going to school. One obstacle that could come my way is to get frustrated with school and work. I know it could probably get hard at times, but all I have to do is think about my dreams of becoming a teacher, and I will be just fine. As long as I keep my head straight and my mind set on finishing my degree, and thinking about how it will all work out in the future, I believe that I will do just fine!
The fourth goal that I have set for myself is to receive my teaching license. For this I would have to locate the closes place in my area that provides the materials that I need to get my license. I would have to apply for my exam and pay a fee to take the series of test. Before I could take my test I would first have to submit my school transcript. I would then have to take the Praxis II test, and may be a few more. After I have passed all of the required test, only then would I receive my teaching license. One obstacle that I may run into is not passing the required test. If this were to happen I would have to look at my scores, find the areas that I did not do so well in, and then study in those areas once more before taking the test a second time. Then I could go back and retake the test and hopefully pass. Hopefully it will not come down to that though; I believe that if I do my best and complete all the requirements for the license, I will have no trouble getting them.
Once I have completed my Bachelor’s degree and received my teaching license, I would then start working on my fifth goal, which would be finding a school and applying for a teaching position. I could then start looking for school to apply at. I would need to gather all the papers and my portfolio so that I would have it ready to hand over to the school of my choice when needed. I already have one school in mind; hopefully once I have completed all the requirements for becoming a teacher they will have an opening. Once I have choose the school that I am interested in, I would want to do a little research on the school and may be talk to some of the teachers there to see if it is the right environment that I want to teach at. Once I have found the school that I want to work at I would then need to apply for a teaching position. If they became interested in hiring me, I would then need to go for an interview with them. If they like what they see in my portfolio and I have completed all the requirements to become a teacher, hopefully I would then get my first job in my new career.
After I have completed my first set of goals, I would then need to start on my next goals. I want to keep moving up the latter to a higher degree. I would then start working on my sixth goal, which would be to go back to school for my Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education. To do this I would first have to decide what school to go back to. Once I have found the school that I want to attend, I would need to complete the admission process for that school. Once I have been accepted into the school of my choice I would then start working on my Master’s degree. As I stated in an earlier paragraph, going to school and working as a full time teacher can probably get kind of hectic at times, but with the right attitude I believe that I will be able to handle it well.
My seventh goal is the most import goal that I have set for myself. My seventh goal is to open my own daycare center. I would first need to look into the requirements for opening up a daycare in South Carolina. I would then need to complete all the requirements needed to run my daycare. I would then start looking into where I want to open a daycare and how much it will cost me to do so. Once I have completed all that is needed to open a daycare, acquired a building, and have got the word out about my business, hopefully then I will start my daycare business with a boom!
I have explained a few of the obstacles that will come my way throughout my paper as I make my journey to my dream career, but the biggest obstacle that I have right now is raising my son. He comes first, and my education and career come second. When he gets sick or something comes up with him, I must take care of him before I can take care of myself. I am not too worried about this right now because I have a superior support team that is willing to help me when needed. My friends and family are there for me, and I probably could not do it without them this far. My son became ill with a bad case of pneumonia a few months back, and without the support of my family and friends, I would have been in a bad position, but with their help I made it through it just fine. Like I said in an earlier paragraph as long as I keep my mind in the right direction, and keep thinking about my dreams of becoming a teacher and opening up my own daycare, I will make it there with no problems.
The INTASC Principle that I believe that I could use improvement on for my career would be Principle number 2: Learning and human development. The description of this Principle is “The teacher understands how children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social and personal development” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2005, p. 29). I believe that this Principle will help me more than any of the others because you are always getting new students in your classroom, and not all of them learn the same. One year you may have students that learn all about the same way, and the next year you could have students that learn in all different ways. This will be beneficial for both my students and me. Once I gain more knowledge in how to better understand how each of my students learn, I will be able to teach a lesson that all of my students will be able to easily comprehend. Each student learns in their own way and to be able to pin point the way they learn, helps me to better prepare a lesson in a way that all my students are gaining the materials needed at the same time.
There are many other professional development programs that have been developed to help teachers as they make their way through the first year, and on into the following years. One that I have found and think that would help me as I start my career in teaching would the Teacher Networks. This is a web site that has all kinds of useful information for beginning and advanced teachers. Some of the things that they have available on their website is many different lesson plans that you can work with, tips on organizing your classroom, and videos on teachers teaching their students in a productive. As I watched one of the videos, one teacher could not express enough how important it is to get to know each of your students as individually and as a group. They also mentioned that keeping the students busy and have interactive lessons will make the children want to learn more. I believe that the Teacher Network with help me in many different ways, I can use this site to watch videos on how teachers teach different lessons, I can use their lesson plans to help develop a lesson plan of my own, and I can receive great advice from the experienced teachers on the site.
I have one particular way that I plan to monitor my progress as I make my way toward my final goal. At the beginning of each week I make a list of all the assignments for the week. As I complete each assignment I place a checkmark beside it, and then when I receive a grade for my assignment, I will place my score beside it. This way I am able to keep up with my grade at the end of each week. I also will keep up with my progress by graduation. Each time I graduate I want to do something special for myself, this way I will work hard to complete each program and receive my reward at the end. I believe as long as I keep up with what I am doing I will have no problem in completing my dream goal of becoming a teacher.
One professional organization that I want to join would be Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. The goal of this organization is “To enhance all aspects of effective teaching and learning. Including professional development educational leadership, and capacity building” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2005, p. 508). I believe that this organization will show me different ways to become an effective teacher. I also believe that this organization will help me to become more of a professional leader for my students. No matter how much you think you already know, it is always great to receive more information on how to become better at what you do.
This class has helped me gain so much knowledge on how it will be when I do enter my classroom for the first year. I have learned that organization is the main key to effective teaching. This class has made me really think about becoming a teacher and what it takes to become a teacher. I cannot believe that so many teachers decide to leave the profession after a couple of years. In my opinion you must have a passion to teach children and help them grow to know that they can learn if they just put set their mind to it. I personally cannot wait to get inside the classroom, as I stated in an earlier paragraph, this is my dream career. I am so excited that I am one class closer to completing my degree in elementary education. Thank you so much for all your help during this class!!

Works Cited

* Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2005). Introduction to Teaching. Pearson.

Cited: * Kauchak, D., & Eggen, P. (2005). Introduction to Teaching. Pearson.